Loophole means buyer avoids £1m in Stamp Duty

The high-end north London estate agent Aston Chase, is promoting a 4,600 sq ft, five bedroom, grade II listed home in Regent’s Park at £8.95m.

This property is owned by an offshore company so, legally the company is for sale not the property. This means the buyer can avoid paying around £1m in stamp duty.

National newspapers have been made aware of this sale, describing the company purchase process as a ‘loophole’ which allows the buyer to legally avoid paying £987,750 in stamp duty.

Selling and buying a company this way does incur costs than a standard house sale would, for example under the Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings, the home will incur a bill of £54,450 per year.

The Mirror highlights that with the current rate of stamp duty the saving on this particular property would cover roughly 18 years of ATED.